Challenge to local voucher program remains unlikely

Published: Wednesday, November 28, 2012 at 11:20 a.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, November 28, 2012 at 11:20 a.m.

Though a recent ruling has raised possible challenges to the state’s school voucher system, schools in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes will likely not be affected.

The vouchers, proposed by Gov. Bobby Jindal, were implemented for the first time this year. They give taxpayer money to low-income parents of children in low-scoring schools to pay private school tuition.

Jindal and other supporters argue the vouchers introduce more choice and competition into the school system, but teachers’ unions and other opponents argue they will sap money from already money-strapped school systems.

Those critics — including the school boards of Lafourche and Terrebonne — have filed a joint lawsuit to halt the voucher program. That suit had a hearing Wednesday.

But a separate legal challenge in Tangipahoa Parish may have opened the door for different lawsuits to overturn the law in individual school districts.

U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle ruled Monday the voucher program conflicts with a decades-old desegregation order in that parish and said the voucher system must be stopped there immediately, according to The Associated Press.

Desegregation orders are lawsuits from the civil rights era that forced unwilling school districts to eliminate “separate but equal” schools for blacks and whites.

The orders come with strict rules that require school districts to prove any major changes such as new schools, moving school populations or changing school zone lines won’t impact one race more or less than another.

About 40 parishes, including Lafourche and Terrebonne, are still under such orders.

Opponents of Jindal’s voucher program argue it upsets the delicate balance some desegregation orders require.

“How does a school system present a predictable product if each year they don’t know how many students they’ll be down?” said Steve Monaghan, president of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers.

In Tangipahoa’s case, the desegregation order requires the school district to carefully balance the number of white students with the number of black students in each school. The School Board argued the voucher system makes it more difficult for administrators to keep up that balance.

But Monaghan said the judge’s order to stop the program only applies to Tangipahoa Parish. Each parish’s desegregation order is different.

“Just because this is the case in one parish doesn’t mean it will be in another parish,” Monaghan said. “But this definitely opens the door for more challenges, and I know several school boards are already looking into taking action.”

Monaghan also cautioned that the desegregation issue likely wouldn’t affect the larger lawsuit against the voucher program.

State education officials protested the decision vehemently.

“We strongly disagree with this ruling. We are optimistic it will be reversed on appeal,” said state School Superintendent John White, in an email. “There was no evidence produced at the hearing as to why the scholarship program would impact the order; in fact, there was no evidence presented at the hearing at all.”

But local school officials said they’re unlikely to try to file similar suits.

Only 65 out of Lafourche’s 14,300 students and 19 out of Terrebonne’s 18,500 students are taking the vouchers.

“There just aren’t enough students taking vouchers here for us to worry about it, to be honest,” said Terrebonne Parish Superintendent Philip Martin.

Martin said the time and expense of pursuing a lawsuit simply isn’t worth it.

“We’d rather be focused on doing what we can to improve the education our kids are getting,” he said.

Lafourche Parish schools spokesman Floyd Benoit said he wasn’t aware of any efforts to push for a lawsuit in Lafourche.

Benoit said the Lafourche School Board is focusing on the other lawsuit.

“Our lawyer is there right now,” Benoit said. “That’s the one we’re really paying attention to.”

Staff Writer Matthew Albright can be reached at 448-7635 or at matthew.albright@dailycomet.com.

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